PhD Student Sharin Jacob Receives 2017 David E. Eskey Memorial Award from CATESOL

Entering PhD student Sharin Jacob has received the 2017 David E. Eskey Memorial Award from CATESOL, a professional organization serving teachers of English to speakers of other languages in California and Nevada.

In advising Ms. Jacob of her award, CATESOL wrote, The Selection Committee was unanimous in their support of your proposal for the 2017 David E. Eskey Memorial Award. Your background as an ESL high school teacher, graduate student researcher and now doctoral student has provided you with first-hand knowledge of the reading/literacy needs of language learners in California Schools. Most exciting is your focus on computational thinking in the language classroom to develop multiple literacies for English Language learners. Your experience in STEM, which is a burgeoning field, will pay big dividends for the students involved. 

Ms. Jacob's proposal, titled "Exploring Effective Practices for Developing Computational Literacy in English Learners", detailed how, as a teacher, she provided students with multiple opportunities to communicate cross-cutting concepts in STEM by

1. engaging and assessing students on their abilities to employ specific science language functions such as inquiring, analyzing, demonstrating, investigating cause and effect, hypothesizing, and designing models;
2. utilizing evidence-based methods and techniques to make content accessible including differentiated instruction, the use of graphic organizers, instruction on academic language, and the explicit teaching of science skills; and
3. promoting home and community connections, recent discoveries and advances, cross curricular collaboration, and reading strategies to make science interesting and relevant to students.

Ms. Jacob will receive her award this October at the annual CATESOL conference. At the 2018 CATESOL Conference she will deliver a 45-minutes presentation on her research.